Fossilized mammoth tusk unearthed at Seattle construction site

A developer says it is partnering with paleontologists to remove and preserve a mammoth tusk found at a construction site in a Seattle neighborhood. AMLI Residential and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture on the University of Washington campus will work together to prepare for the removal of the fossilized mammoth tusk, discovered at AMLI's apartment development site in the South Lake Union area of Seattle, the museum reported Friday. After the discovery during excavations, AMLI contacted Burke Museum paleontologists who examined the fossilized tusk, AMLI Senior Vice President Scott Koppelman said. "AMLI not only develops high quality apartment homes, we manage them as well, and our management teams strive to be very involved in the communities in which we operate," he said. "So when our contractor informed us of this find, our first response was to determine how the community could benefit from this historical find," he said. The tusk appears to be the most intact and largest tusk ever found in Seattle, Burke paleontologists said. Based on its anatomy and previous discoveries in the area, the fossil is likely a tusk from a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), they said, which was designated the Washington State Fossil in 1998.